One of the horror genre's "most widely read critics" (Rue Morgue # 68), "an accomplished film journalist" (Comic Buyer's Guide #1535), and the award-winning author of Horror Films of the 1980s (2007), The Rock and Roll Film Encyclopedia (2007) and Horror Films of the 1970s (2002), John Kenneth Muir, presents his blog on film, television and nostalgia, named one of the Top 100 Film Studies Blog on the Net.

Sunday, January 20, 2013

Cult-TV Blogging: The Starlost: "Astro-Medics" (December 1, 1973)

This
week on The Starlost, Devon (Keir Dullea) is injured while attempting
to rescue Garth (Robin Ward) during repairs on the Ark. Garth blames himself for Devon’s injury. Even as Garth faces self-recriminations,
Rachel’s (Gay Rowan) call for medical help is answered by the Ark’s Medical
Corps/space patrol.

Devon
is taken aboard the equivalent of a space ambulance with his friends from
Cypress Corners, but the father-and-son doctors tending to his nervous system
injuries must first contend with their own contentious personal history…

“Astro-Medics”
is another one of those The Starlost (1973 – 1974) episodes
that doesn’t seem a good fit for the established series format.

As
you will recall, the series concerns a generational ship, the Earth Ship Ark,
on a collision course with a star. The
people on the Ark -- separated in different cultures within different biospheres
-- are unaware of one another for the most part, and also unaware that they are
on board a spacecraft at all. The
series’ three protagonists, Devon, Rachel, and Garth constantly search for some
person with the skill, knowledge and desire to change the ark’s disastrous
trajectory.

In
“Astro-Medics,” however, the audience learns that a fully-functioning medical corps is still at work
half-a-millennium after the catastrophe that splintered the cultures on the
ship, and still tending to medical emergencies on the Ark.

These
fully-equipped, fully-trained doctors -- who must be the descendants of the original
crew -- patrol in space beyond the perimeter of the Ark, and even offer medical
assistance to alien life forms nearby.

The
existence of this operational medical corps raises some very big questions in
terms of story consistency.

First,
other than folks like Garth, Devon and Rachel -- who know the truth about the Ark
-- who is going to call for the Corps’ help?
Certainly the folks in Cypress Corners don’t call outsider (heathens…)
for medical assistance. Certain Mr.
Smith of Manchester -- massing his army – isn’t calling them for help.

Secondly,
if the people in the biospheres don’t call for help either because they are
unaware of the Corps. Or because they don’t want the help, what calls (again,
other than our heroes’) do these doctors respond to on a regular basis? (And where were these doctors in “Lazarus in
the Mist” when Devon and the others visited a medical facility and could have used
a physician’s skills?)

Next,
the question becomes: why can’t doctors fully trained in surgical procedures,
spaceship piloting, and the use of highly-advanced instrumentation, change the
ark’s deadly course? As “Astro-Medics”
reveals, all the doctors know of the collision course crisis, but have decided
they can’t do anything about it.
Instead, they race about to help sick individuals, all while the whole of mankind is in dire physical jeopardy.

This
is roughly akin to treating a patient’s broken leg when he is undergoing
cardiac arrest.

To
put it even more simply, if a person can pilot a medical space ambulance around
the Ark -- and to the location of a damaged alien ship -- then certainly he could
at least take a crack at setting a new trajectory for the Ark, right?

Couldn’t
he or she at least…try?

The
next issue raised by “Astro-Medics” is one of Devon, Garth and Rachel’s
quest. Their job, essentially, is to
bring order out of chaos, to bring together the various and diverse biospheres
so that they can combine together and save humanity. Wouldn’t the existence of an organization
like the Medical Corps – with their technology and medicine – make that quest
infinitely easier? Wouldn’t the
threesome from Cypress Corners wish to avail themselves of that support?

Finally,
I must second-guess the producers for highlighting this story, which in essence
deals with a father and son -- both doctors -- learning to respect each other,
while caring for their patients. Why is
this tale -- more at home on Marcus Welby, Ben Casey, Dr. Kildare,
or Trapper
John MD --appropriate for inclusion on a series called The
Starlost?

As
I see it, “Astro-Medics” serves two essential purposes. First, it sidelines Devon and thus gives Keir
Dullea a break. Week after week of
carrying the lion’s share of the dialogue and action, I can see why this is
useful. Secondly, Devon’s absence allows
Garth to step into the spotlight. I must
confess, as the series progresses, I’m coming to like and appreciate Garth
quite a bit. He shows real humanity,
discipline and character in episodes such as “Astro-Medics” “The Alien Oro” and
the upcoming “The Implant People.” After
many episodes in which the writers seemed at a loss about how to handle the
character, Garth seems to be coming into his own as a character in this batch
of shows. He’s a lot less strident than
Devon.

2 comments:

This ep was disappointing in a number of other ways. Why was Devon so critically injured by the sonic chamber, while Garth who spent even more time in the chamber wasn't? Devon's injury setup a contrived moral dilema for the Astromedics of the type so endlessly done on "Star Trek: The Next Generation". The doctor's father was neither feeble or suffering from poor vision as the other doctors 'observed'. Even frail Dr. Goodfellow on "Buck Rogers" was deemed fit enough to perform surgery. A note on the acting: none of the actors were very convincing as doctors. The actual operation was incredibly lame. Keeping the 'alien' in a video blur (reminiscent of the alien's image in Star Trek's "Corbonite Manuever" for most of the ep was understandable. The make-up for the reptilian alien was awful. The Astromedics provide brilliant advice for the aliens -Turn down your heat! How such dim-witted aliens were capable of spaceflight is a mystery!

About John

award-winning author of 27 books including Horror Films FAQ (2013), Horror Films of the 1990s (2011), Horror Films of the 1980s (2007), TV Year (2007), The Rock and Roll Film Encyclopedia (2007), Mercy in Her Eyes: The Films of Mira Nair (2006),, Best in Show: The Films of Christopher Guest and Company (2004), The Unseen Force: The Films of Sam Raimi (2004), An Askew View: The Films of Kevin Smith (2002), The Encyclopedia of Superheroes on Film & Television (2004), Exploring Space:1999 (1997), An Analytical Guide to TV's Battlestar Galactica (1998), Terror Television (2001), Space:1999 - The Forsaken (2003) and Horror Films of the 1970s (2002).

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